Facebook now testing iPhone 6s Live Photos support for iOS users

Facebook on Monday launched a limited pilot of Live Photos support for people using the company's iOS app, with plans for wider compatibility in 2016.

A small number of iOS 9 users should now be able to view and upload Live Photos, Facebook said. Although capturing and uploading in the format requires an iPhone 6s or 6s Plus, anyone in the testing pool should be able to access the content.

Live Photos are marked with the format's signature "ripple" icon on compatible devices. People outside of Facebook's current support sphere -- including other iOS users, and those on different operating systems -- will only see a static image.

In September, Apple promised that Facebook would launch Live Photos support by the end of 2015. Third-party support for the format is still extremely limited. The only other compatible app so far is Tumblr, which itself only gained the feature on Dec. 10.

Live Photos are enhanced with a few seconds of video and audio, and so far limited to iOS devices. The technology was one of the centerpieces of Apple's iPhone 6s announcement on Sept. 9.

Comments

I found "live Photos" so difficult to take that I gave up the day after I first got the iPhone. I forgot the capability even existed to be honest. IMO they are both more problematic and far less interesting than you'd expect, given the whiz-bang announcement Apple made out of it.

During the 6s announcement I was excited by Live Photos, but I've also disabled them. It's one of those features that'll trigger a variety of responses; I prefer using less storage for photos and rarely care about the animation, but others will feel the opposite.